The popular expression ‘crocodile tears’, meaning insincere weeping, is of course not based on biological science. The blood of another reptile has, however, recently come under the research spotlight and with interesting results.

Researchers from Louisiana State University (LSU) say their work on the blood serum of alligators could lead to promising new drug development against some major human pathologic bacteria and virus species.

The announcement (1) was made during the 235th American Chemical Society National Meeting (ACS), held in New Orleans, United States, 6-8th April, 2008.

According to the study, alligators are born with an innate immune system; they can react against antigens with which they have not previously come into contact.

Study co-author Lancia Darville, from LSU, believes that peptides (fragments of proteins) within alligator blood help the animals avoid otherwise potentially fatal infections. ‘We are in the process of separating and identifying the specific peptides in alligator blood. Once we sequence these peptides, we can obtain their chemical structure to potentially [create new] drugs’, said Darville, as reported by National Geographic.

According to the researcher, such peptides are also found in the skins of frogs and toads, as well as in komodo dragons and crocodiles.

The research team exposed 23 species of bacteria to the serum extracted from alligator blood and as a result all the bugs were killed. Humans typically can defeat only eight of the bacteria.

Co-author Mark Merchant, a biochemist at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was among the first to notice alligators’ unusual resistance to infection.

Initial tests, however, have revealed that higher concentrations of the reptile’s serum are toxic to human cells. Therefore, it is still going to be a while before we can expect to find ‘croc tablets’ replacing antibiotics.

Reference
1. Darville, L.N.F., K.K. Murray, and M.E. Merchant (2008). Proteonomic analysis of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) serum using 2-D-gel separation and mass spectrometry (Presentation ANYL 81). American Chemical Society meeting. April 6-10. New Orleans.

Although malaria is caused by a protozoan, one of the most interesting new initiatives to support malaria programmes involves taking a ‘viral’ approach. Viral here meaning the potential to ‘contaminate’ hearts and minds worldwide, by relying upon the social network power of the internet.

The MalariaEngage website is intended to be a ‘donation convergence centre’. It also aims to strengthen social networking among researchers, to foster the creation of international web communities, and to share information on malaria prevention, treatment and capacity building projects.

The idea has been born from a partnership between 25-year-old British entrepreneur Tom Hadfield, together with Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), and Canadian think tank the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MCR).

Hadfield became famous for having developed, when he was only 17 years old, the website Soccernet – sold later to ESPN for $40 million. The MCR is based at the University Health Network and University of Toronto.

Another important characteristic of MalariaEngage is a synergic approach, blending both western medical techniques and traditional healing methods.

Donations, starting from $10, can be made to any of the seven Tanzanian malaria programmes listed on MalariaEngage.

1) Mosquito-repellent plants: to establish a large-scale production and distribution of seeds from eight plants proved to have repellent effect over mosquitoes when grown around community houses. Among the plants, are the lantana, lemongrass, Mexican marigold and American basil – successfully trialled at a refugee camp in Tanzania’s Ngara district.

2) Insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs): to look for solutions for accessibility problems – including distribution logistics, high cost of ITNs ($6.50 each), and cultural factors. For instance, Muslims do not use white linen in their bed as this are the colours of their religious burial cloths. Moreover, in coastal communities, some fishermen prefer to use the ITNs to catch fish rather than protect themselves against mosquitoes.

3) Drug combination therapy: to research the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) together with two community-based approaches: mother coordinators (MCs) and community owned resource persons (CORPs) – both relying in electing some person from within the community to take the responsibility of managing the drug delivering to small children.

4) Assessment of artemisinin drugs: to tackle accessibility, affordability and drug use compliance of ACTs – to benefit poor people in remote areas.

5) Intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women (IPT): to put into motion a wide-ranging education campaign to increase IPT throughout rural Tanzania.

6) Sweet wormwood as herbal remedy: to validate the safety and effectiveness of wormwood plant (Artemisia annua) tea as a cheaper adjuvant malaria herbal remedy for distant poor communities.

7) Improving collaboration between traditional healers and health workers: to focus on ways to improve communication and to foster collaboration between the two – most of times mutually excluding – therapeutic approaches in addressing child malaria in rural villages.

In most vampire movies, a highly sensual – or even sexual – atmosphere precedes the neck-biting assault of a victim. For these fictional creatures, sexuality seems to play a key role into arousing the thirst for human blood.

However, this not seems to be a true statement for Aedes aegypti female mosquitoes –real life small-scale ‘vampires’ which can transmit dengue fever or yellow fever. For these insects, sex has the same effect a garlic soup would have on Dracula’s dinner: it spoils their appetite for good.

Researchers from Cornell University have identified 63 proteins that male Aedes transmit through their seminal fluid, triggering a physiological response on females that include lessening their sexual appetite and – most important – suppressing their appetite for mammalian blood.

These findings, published in the journal Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Vol 38, issue 2, February 2008, Pages 176-189) could help to pave new ways to prevent the spread of these important mosquito-borne viruses. The next step will be to identify the targets of the mosquito’s proteins in order to interfere and regulate such key post-mating behaviours.

Dengue affects 50 million people annually, having reached epidemic levels in Asia, South and Central America and Mexico, where the number of cases has increased by more than 300 percent from a year earlier. Infection by any one of the four dengue viruses can eventually lead to the more severe aspects of the disease, including haemorrhagic fever, shock and death.

Although a vaccine for yellow fever has been available for more than 60 years, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) there has been a significance rise in the number of infected people over the last two decades, especially in Africa and the Americas, turning this virus disease into a serious public health issue again.

More than enough reason to find new ways to spoil the appetite of female Aedes aegypti worldwide.

Reference
1. Sirota LK, Poulsonb RL, McKennab MC, Girnary H, Wolfnera, MF, Harrington LC (2008). Identity and transfer of male reproductive gland proteins of the dengue vector mosquito, Aedes aegypti: Potential tools for control of female feeding and reproduction. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 38 (2), 176-189. doi:10.1016/j.ibmb.2007.10.007

Sometimes action against infectious diseases of poverty can result in surprising new alliances. Variations on the headline ‘Media tycoon Ted Turner establishes partnership with Lutherans and Methodists to fight malaria in Africa and launches a $200 million initiative’ have appeared in the international media recently.

The founder of CNN is noted for his generous donations to humanitarian causes; his New York-based United Nations Foundation was created in 1998 with a historic $1 billion gift to help support UN activities. However, many were surprised by his decision to join forces with two Christian organizations – the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the Lutheran World Relief (LWR) – as Turner once allegedly stated that Christianity was a ‘religion for losers.’

Nevertheless, as the philanthropist told a press conference, ‘As I get older, you know, I get more, you know, more tolerant.’

Turner’s foundation has already been working with many groups, including the Methodists, on the Nothing But Nets campaign, which provides insecticide-treated bed nets in poor communities. Lutheran World Relief has been helping malaria-infected cities and villages.

According to UN Foundation, the new global effort intends to educate and mobilize the UMC and LWR’s combined constituency of more than 20 million people concerned with malaria and related diseases of poverty and advance the churches’ on-the-ground health missions. It will also provide financial support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, as well as support malaria prevention and health system strengthening efforts.

During the initiative’s official announcement to the United Nations General Assembly, the media entrepreneur said: ‘You’ve got to have faith to build a better world.’

Religious beliefs aside, one thing even the most atheist or agnostic is compelled to agree: protestant and other religious groups have been working overseas to fight poverty and prevent disease for more than a century. And nowadays, in order to fight pernicious infectious diseases in such a globalized world, interdisciplinary and ecumenical approaches have become almost mandatory.

Exactly eight decades ago a Penicillium spore drifted through the air, landing on a Petri dish full of Staphylococcus in Dr Alexander Fleming’s lab and set in motion a chain of events that has changed medical history.

Now, a team of scientists has accidentally reversed the route taken by Fleming. Also through an accidental sequence of discoveries, they bumped into hundreds of soil-living germs that not only happened to be resistant to antibiotics – they actually had the ability to feed on them. Figuratively speaking, this is comparable to discovering a new zebra species that has developed not only a resistance to attacks by lions but began to find them tasty too!

The remarkable discovery occurred while a team of researchers led by Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church was looking for microorganisms in soil capable of breaking down certain chemicals, as part of a quest for developing biofuels from agricultural waste.

In the study, recently published in the journal Science, Church and colleagues describe bacteria able to feed on 18 different antibiotics (both natural and synthetic), including gentamicin, vancomycin and Cipro – all of them with wide clinical application.

One of the more disturbing aspects of the study was that some of the bacteria samples could survive antibiotic levels up to 100 times higher than the commonly administered clinical doses.

One of the next steps is to determine the genetic mechanisms that allow these soil bacteria to have such an unusual meal and also to check if they could manage to transfer their ‘anti-antibiotic’ genes to the most serious human pathogens.

At least in one respect, the antibiotic-eater bacteria strains that have just been discovered are good news: they are silently digesting all residual antibiotics released by us as pollution into the environment.

Reference
1. Dantas G, Sommer MOA, Rantimi D, Oluwasegun RD, Church GM. Bacteria subsisting on antibiotics. Science 320; 872, 100-103 doi: 10.1126/science.1155157.

When infectious diseases of poverty appear in the newspapers, it is usually in the science and health sections, when associated with scientific breakthroughs, or in the economic sections – when it concerns philanthropic donations or institutional funding grants. During the last few weeks, however, a neglected disease has also made headlines in the political sections throughout the world.

Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian citizen and former presidential candidate abducted by the FARC guerrilla movement in 2002, is reported to be severely infected with leishmaniasis.

According to a radio statement from Colombia’s public defender Volmar Perez, ‘her physical condition and health are frankly deteriorated’. Other media sources affirm that Ingrid has also contracted malaria and hepatitis B.

Alongside the political implications and the personal misfortune of being held under captivity in the jungle for so long, Ingrid’s drama also showcases the severe and continuing threat to public health posed by infectious diseases within their endemic areas.

For many years, the public health impact of the leishmaniases has been grossly underestimated, mainly due to lack of awareness of its serious impact on health. According to the World Health Organization, over the last 10 years, endemic regions have been expanding and there has been a sharp increase in the number of recorded cases of the disease.

To make matters worse, leishmaniasis is a notified disease in only 32 of the 88 countries affected by the disease; a substantial number of cases are therefore never recorded. Two million new cases are believed to occur annually, with an estimated 12 million people presently infected worldwide. Under-reporting is, however, substantial; only around 600 000 infections are officially reported each year.